Festival Hall to be sold and redeveloped

[Gydafud]

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainm...hall-takes-knockout-blow-20180123-h0mxgx.html

With Festival Hall looking to be sold and knocked down, the NJPW show could well be the final wrestling event ever hosted there. Make sure you get the word out, at least to make sure anyone on the fence can at least get the chance before it is gone for good.

Any members here old enough to have gone there during the WCW golden years? My old man and grandfather used to bang on about it.

 

[Brick Loosener]

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainm...hall-takes-knockout-blow-20180123-h0mxgx.html

With Festival Hall looking to be sold and knocked down, the NJPW show could well be the final wrestling event ever hosted there. Make sure you get the word out, at least to make sure anyone on the fence can at least get the chance before it is gone for good.

Any members here old enough to have gone there during the WCW golden years? My old man and grandfather used to bang on about it.

My pop and old man were the same.

 

[WireHawk]

As a teen I used to go to Festival Hall on Saturday nights during the golden years of World Championship Wrestling. My mate and I used to scrape together the $2 entry fee for kids, get there early and wait at the front of the building to see the wrestlers arrive.

In those days the wrestlers would arrive individually by cab, except Spiros Arion who arrived in a shoddy green Valiant driven by a mate. What happened out on the street was almost as much fun as what happened inside the building. I was standing in the middle of the footpath one time and felt a presence behind me. I turned around and was confronted by the 'Texas Outlaws': Dusty Rhodes and Dick Murdoch. I stood immobile as they brushed past on either side of me. They were HUGE!

I don't know if any one on here remembers when 'Playboy' Gary Hart hypnotised Mario Milano and made him turn evil. Well right in the middle of that angle Gary Hart sidled up to the doorway I was leaning against and knocked on the door to be let in. I was transfixed as Hart waited for the doorman to open up just a foot or so from me. He looked straight at me and I thought he might be trying to hypnotise me! I was rapt as he was one of my favourites, along side his charges The Spoiler, 'Killer' Karl Kox and Waldo Von Erich. Some of the wrestlers would stay in character on the street and return abuse to the fans who booed them. Waldo Von Erich and 'Killer' Karl Kox would do this and I loved it. Abdullah the Butcher was frightening to see walking down Dudley Street. Everyone gave him a wide berth. I loved him as well.

There were a lot of wild brawls in the ring during The People's Army,with Spiros Arion, King Curtis, Mark Lewin and others versus Big Bad John's Army featuring Bulldog Brower, Killer Karl Kox, Abdullah the Butcher, Waldo Von Erich and friends. There was blood aplenty and nonstop mayhem. Some of these matches are available on YouTube and believe me they are as crazy as they seem. Jack Little used to climb up into a booth above the stage and commentate on the footage that they would then show the following day on TV. That's where that footage comes from.

It was a long, long time ago and I was just 13 or 14 so some memories have faded, but they were some of the best times I ever had. The kids at school would mock me for going to Festival Hall to see wrestling, but where else would you see giant Texans, a madman from the Sudan, mesmerising svengalis and nazis on a Melbourne Street.

In some ways it was a hellhole but for the great memories I say Vale Festival Hall.

 

[Cleavy]

maybe just put in a word to New Japan to buy the venue